Monument record 13572 - SOUTH UIST, AISGERNIS

NF72SW 21 c.73 23

NF 764 474 to NF 758 140 The South Uist machair has been surveyed between 1993-1996, from Cille Bhrighde (West Kilbride) in the extreme S of the island to Baile Gharbhaidh (Balgarva) at the N end of the island, a distance of 35km. This year, the number of known prehistoric and Early Historic settlement sites has now increased from 81 to 176.
The continuing pattern of Iron Age-Viking Age settlement clusters along the machair supports the hypothesis of 'proto-townships'; that the system of land allotment amongst the townships is essentially an Iron Age phenomenon which survived substantially intact until the Clearances of the early 19th century (see unpublished reports, Sheffield University). An unusual concentration of sites was found at Machair Mheadhanach in the Iochdar (Eochar) area, N of the rocket range and W of Loch Bee; some 35 settlement sites, ranging in date from the Late Bronze Age to the early post-medieval period, are strung out within a 2km line along a NW-SE axis. This multifocal pattern is very different from other settlement patterns on South Uist but still fits the 'proto-township' model.
The second major concentration of sites is at Drimore where a group of 14 settlement sites, of various dates, are arranged in a SSE-NNW line 750m long. Most of these were identified in the 1950s during survey and excavation in advance of the construction of the rocket range.
The pattern of hypothesised proto-townships throughout the survey area (unpublished report, Sheffield University) holds reasonably well but there are gaps for each of the six 'shieling' (gearraidh) townships of South Uist. This suggests that these shieling townships may have formed in the medieval period by sub-division of larger units, and thus do not have prehistoric predecessors. Other medieval peatland settlements are tentatively identified at Upper Bornish, Aisgernis (Askernish), Frobost and Cille Pheadair (Kilpheder). There is a strong possibility that most of the nucleated villages mapped by William Bald in 1805 are located on earlier post-medieval and medieval settlements. The movement of settlement off the machair mainly occurred in the post-Norse medieval period. The only exceptions are Baghasdal, where the machair settlement was abandoned only after 1805 supposedly due to 'machair fever' (James MacDonald pers comm), and Machair Mheadhanach which was deserted some time between 1654 and 1805.
Sponsor:
Sheffield University.
M Parker Pearson 1996

NF 73 23 In Aisgernis (Askernish) township there is a line of low settlement mounds occupying a N-S sand ridge between the machair and the peatland. One of these (Site 96) can be dated to the medieval period as the result of digging seven small test-pits and one test trench. Another (Site 97) is likely to date to this period as well, on the basis of another test trench. Site 48 has produced much pottery from rabbit scrapes but the only datable find in Test Trench 10 was a complete rotary quernstone, indicating a date from the Middle Iron Age or later. Another test trench was dug in Site 232, a newly recognised site, but no diagnostic material was found. To the S, along the ridge, Sites 234 and 233 are probably low settlement mounds hitherto uninvestigated. Site 233 is known as the 'Old Town'. Inland from Site 96 is a fallen standing stone (Site 95) and, in the garden of Askernish House, a shell midden (Site 156).
M Parker Pearson 1998

REPORT DATE: 21/05/1999

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 1998, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41173.